alex_greene
Guest
Recent posts concerning themselves with alchemy made me reach for the old weights and measures book to refer to some of the wild and wacky weights and measures chemists used, back in the day before standardised metric measures.
1 pound (lb) (about 454 grammes) equals 16 ounces (oz) or 12 apothecary ounces (oz).
1 apothecary oz = 8 drachms
1 drachm = 3 scruples
1 scruple = 20 grains
So 1 lb = 5760 grains.
The "grain" was the smallest effective measure, equivalent to the mass of a single grain of wheat.
In the UK, fluid measure was similar:-
1 pint = 20 fluid ounces (fl. oz.)
1 fluid ounce = 8 fluid drachms
1 fluid drachm = 3 fluid scruples
1 fluid scruple = 20 fluid minims.
1 pint of water at room temp weighed 1 lb.
Just throwing this in here for flavour, so your alchemist characters can throw these terms about during the course of play.
1 pound (lb) (about 454 grammes) equals 16 ounces (oz) or 12 apothecary ounces (oz).
1 apothecary oz = 8 drachms
1 drachm = 3 scruples
1 scruple = 20 grains
So 1 lb = 5760 grains.
The "grain" was the smallest effective measure, equivalent to the mass of a single grain of wheat.
In the UK, fluid measure was similar:-
1 pint = 20 fluid ounces (fl. oz.)
1 fluid ounce = 8 fluid drachms
1 fluid drachm = 3 fluid scruples
1 fluid scruple = 20 fluid minims.
1 pint of water at room temp weighed 1 lb.
Just throwing this in here for flavour, so your alchemist characters can throw these terms about during the course of play.
